The mayor of Miami had some harsh words for the Trump administration’s continued refusal to acknowledge climate change.
Republican Mayor Tomás Regalado blasted Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt, who said last week that talking about climate change in connection with hurricanes Harvey and Irma was “misplaced” and “insensitive.”
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“It is insensitive on his part, because I wish he would have been here when people ran from high-rises because of the storm surge,” Regalado said during an interview with CNN. “I wish he would have been here when we were told we were facing apocalyptic moments with a Cat-5 hurricane.”
While Hurricane Irma ultimately weakened and did not, as was originally feared, make a direct hit on Miami, insurers still estimate the insured losses from Irma and Harvey could top $70 billion. And Regalado said that he would like to tell President Donald Trump that it could have been even worse.
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“I would tell the president, ‘Mr. President, had we been hit on a direct wave by a Cat-5 in the city of Miami, you, sir, would now be worrying about the collapse of the insurance world as we know it in the United States’,” he said. “We have the most exposed assets here. In the 14 miles of waterfront we have here, there are billions and billions of dollars (in property). A hundred thousand people – only in Miami – live on the waterfront. And we have Key Biscayne and Miami Beach. I would tell you that this is something that’s not only about Miami – it’s about the United States.”
Regalado said he didn’t buy the idea that the one-two punch of Harvey and Irma was an “anomaly.”
“I’m not a militant. I’m not a national leader. I’m not one of those people who obsesses about climate change,” he told CNN. “But I can tell you for a fact, that in my city, we have a problem. … I am telling you that the water is higher and higher every year.”
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